Mobile networks that facilitate transfer of information at broadband rates continue to be developed and deployed. Such networks may be colloquially referred to herein as broadband wireless access (BWA) networks. A variety of different device types may be used in broadband wireless technologies. Such devices may include, for example, personal computers, smartphone, laptops, netbooks, ultrabooks, tablets, handheld devices, and other consumer electronics such as music players, digital cameras, etc., that are configured to communicate over the wireless broadband networks.
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) may refer to technologies that allow wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices without any human intervention. M2M may use a device such as, for example, a sensor or meter to collect information, which may be relayed through a network (e.g., wireless, wired, or hybrid) to an application that translates the information into meaningful data. The device may be, for example, a machine type communication (MTC) device configured to communicate with an MTC server in a BWA network. The expansion of BWA networks across the world and accompanying increased speed/bandwidth and reduced power of wireless communication has facilitated growth of M2M communication.
Currently, there is growing interest in introducing energy-harvesting devices in wireless networks, especially for M2M communications in applications where the devices need to be small, cheap and are not easily maintained. Current wireless protocols may be designed with an expectation that a client device will have sufficient energy from either battery or connected power supply for communication for communication. However, energy-harvesting devices may store energy harvested by the device and, thus, may not have an amount of energy sufficient to communicate with the wireless network in accordance with current wireless protocols. For example, in present cellular networks, a network scheduler may schedule transmissions based on factors that fail to consider energy storage capability, capacity or level of an energy harvesting device, which may result in inefficient operation of the energy storage device due to wasted energy, lost opportunity to harvest energy, potentially failed transmission/receptions. For example, if the energy storage information of the energy-harvesting device is not known at the network, the scheduler may communicate with the energy-harvesting device at a time that results in lost opportunity to generate and store energy or at a time when energy harvesting capability or storage level is too low to support reliable communication.